A once-forgotten golf course is set to ignite the city’s creativity this autumn as it transforms into a captivating festival venue. The Forest of Imagination will animate Entry Hill from Tuesday, September 23, to Sunday, October 5, 2025, welcoming visitors to a free, immersive celebration themed “Imagining the Future of the Forgotten Land.”
This extraordinary festival reimagines the neglected greens as a dynamic fusion of art, nature, and community. Attendees of all ages can explore sensory trails, engage in interactive sculptures, and participate in workshops designed to inspire play, reflection, and environmental awareness. Local schools, businesses, and residents have collaborated to bring this vision to life as a vibrant art-nature park.
Among the standout features is an outdoor classroom and panoramic viewpoint overlooking the city skyline, creatively crafted by FCBStudios and Bath Spa University students. Visitors will also experience “Mesmerine 111™,” a hypnotic 3D soundscape, and the immersive Owl Trance Bench, both presented by Martyn Ware and Charles Stooke with their collaborators. Sound artist Kathy Hinde’s Listening Horns sculptures invite guests to discover the hidden ecologies of the landscape. For younger visitors, the Earth Club Field Station by Patchlarks and Hannah McDowall offers nature-based imaginative learning.
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Other remarkable installations include “Wild Play – Creatures of the Anthropocene,” an evolving storytelling and play project by Holly Le-Var and Morgane Shaban, and “LivingTree,” a participatory sculpture by Andrew Amondson. Matthew Leece contributes “Bog Oil Mirror,” providing a contemplative ecological experience, while Grant Associates introduces “Reclaiming the Green,” a meadow-planting labyrinth. Bath Spa University architecture students will also showcase innovative eco-inspired works at the Forest Amphitheatre.
The festival further highlights community-focused projects such as Clay Forest, Rabbit Holes Collective, Out of the Woods, Be Hope workshops, and Habitat City, enriching the event’s collaborative spirit.
Founded in 2012 by Andrew Grant of Grant Associates and Dr Penny Hay, Professor of Imagination at Bath Spa University, alongside partners including House of Imagination and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, the Forest of Imagination continues to flourish. Andrew Grant emphasizes the potential of Entry Hill as a “forgotten green lung” for Bath, inspiring ecological empathy and creative responses to climate challenges. Dr Penny Hay reflects, “The festival invites everyone to fall in love with nature through collective imagination, creating spaces where creativity and ecology thrive.”
Supported by Bath and North East Somerset Council, Bathscape, The Egg Theatre, Bath Preservation Trust, Bath Community Kitchen, and Avon Wildlife Trust, this year’s festival also serves as a pilot for establishing a permanent Arts and Nature Park in Bath—a future hub for creativity, ecology, and community engagement.